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Thursday, December 31, 2015

Are you sitting all alone in a cold dark room, figuratively at least, and dreading the coming year? What do you fear the most? Is it the Isis, coming nearer and nearer? Maybe they have already invaded your town and you wonder how long it will be until you are singled out. That’s a fear that could surely grip one’s heart and make them tremble.

Or maybe your worries are in in a different line. Maybe you are wondering when will you or your spouse find work. It has been so many months now. How long will you be able to put bread on the table, pay the bills, keep up with the rent? Will you end up on the street?

Maybe there is discord in the home, or drinking, or violence. Maybe you feel like you are to blame and you feel so guilty, but don’t know how to stop. Will the coming year be any better?

Maybe a loved one died. Maybe tragically, maybe through natural causes, maybe it was suicide. To say the future looks bleak without them just doesn’t cut it. It looks awful, just plain awful.

And now it’s 2016 or soon will be, and it feels like the weight of the world is crushing you down.

You feel like those soldiers long ago who were heading home to Italy but there were mountains to cross on foot, and the blizzard surrounded them. The climb seemed endless and was getting continually harder as they struggled through the cold, deepening snow.

What happened then? Many of those mighty warriors were growing faint of heart so what did Hannibal do? He found a good look out point and rallied them all together with shouts of encouragement.

The message was simple, brief…and wonderful. Over these steeps lay Italy, their sunny homeland where loved ones were waiting for them. His words gave them the stamina to continue, but do your know what? Our Captain, the Captain of the Lord’s Army offers even more.

He says that after these struggles and trials our Heavenly Home is waiting us. That is glorious, without a doubt, but sometimes the storms of life make it hard to set our hopes on something so distant so He does one better that that ancient general so long ago.

Listen now, this is important. If you are fainting beneath your heavy load of --life, call out to Him. Keep calling and He will carry you. I promise. Maybe you won’t feel any different immediately, but I promise you if you keep trusting Him He will comfort you. How do I know? Because He’s helped me.